Suspect in fatal Florida school attack is former student with 'anger' issues

Students attending the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are describing hearing multiple shots during a shooting at their South Florida high school Wednesday. (Feb. 14)

AP

PARKLAND, Fla. — The suspected gunman in Wednesday's fatal attack at a Florida high school is a former student who teachers and former classmates say had an angry disposition that led to him being expelled and flagged as a danger on school grounds.

At one point, the former student had been listed by school administrators as a potential threat — particularly if he was carrying a backpack on campus.

Anxious family members watch a rescue vehicle pass by in Parkland, Fla.

Anxious family members watch a rescue vehicle pass by in Parkland, Fla.

WILFREDO LEE, AP

The 19-year-old suspect was identified as Nikolas Cruz by the Broward County Sheriff's office. Cruz, whose first name also appears as Nicolas in some official records, was arrested Wednesday a short distance away from the school near a home, after leaving 17 dead in the afternoon attack.

The official said the killer used a military-style rifle, and that students apparently recognized the suspect during the assault. He was also equipped with a gas mask and smoke grenades, police said.

Cruz had been expelled and did not graduate from the school, according to police. He had previously attracted so much concern that school administrators banned him from campus, said Jim Gard, a math teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Cruz’s mother Lynda Cruz died of pneumonia on Nov. 1 neighbors, friends and family members said, according to The Sun Sentinel. Lynda Cruz and her husband, who died of a heart attack several years ago, adopted Nikolas and his biological brother, Zachary, after the couple moved from Long Island in New York to Broward County.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel confirmed that Cruz was a student at the school at one time, but was not at the time of the shooting.

Israel said the shooter was outside and inside the school at points during the attack.

Cruz' former classmates say he had a hot temper and a history of making dark, gun-related jokes.

As friends hiding from the shooter sent photos and videos over Snapchat to 19-year-old Jillian Davis, she started to recognize the man her friends described.

The shooter she saw in photos was Cruz, she said, a classmate who participated in Davis’s ninth grade JROTC group.

She recalled him as withdrawn and having "a lot of anger management issues."

"Finding out it was him makes a lot of sense now,” Davis said.

Cruz would joke about shooting people or shooting up establishments, she added. At the time, she thought it was normal, violent teenage jokes. Cruz would also talk a lot about having guns and using them in different situations, she said.

Joe Melita, former head of the Professional Standards & Special Investigative Unit at Broward County Public Schools, said students at Douglas High appeared to be evacuating classes after someone pulled the fire alarm when shots rang out and students were told to shelter in place.

There may also have been smoke bombs involved, school district security officials told him. He said several district security officials knew of the shooter. “They were familiar with who the young man was,” said Melita, now a visiting professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton.

Gard said the former student had been aggressive toward other students.

“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” Gard told the Miami Herald. “There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.”

Share This Gallery

Caesar Figueroa said he was one of the first parents to arrive at the school, seeking his 16-year-old daughter after hearing reports of gunfire.

Students were running out into the streets as SWAT team members swarmed in. “It was crazy and my daughter wasn’t answering her phone,” he said.

According to Figueroa, she texted him that she was hidden in a school closet with friends after she heard gunshots.

Schools in the Broward district typically have one or two school resource officers, typically Broward County Sheriff deputies who are armed and always on campus. Schools also employ campus monitors, who patrol the halls with walkie talkies but are not armed, and a security specialist, usually a retired sheriff’s department employee who helps the school plan and maintain its security protocols but is not armed. Melita said he wasn’t specifically familiar with Douglas High’s security setup.

Since heading up security at Broward schools in 2000, Melita said he directed schools to implement shelter-in-place plans and practice several drills a years, in collaboration with local police and fire departments. Melita underwent training by the U.S. Secret Service and implemented many of the lessons into district-wide plans, including implementing a single-point-of-entry in schools and driver license scans for visitors. The plan is not always full-proof, he said.

“If someone wants to get in, they’re going to get in,” Melita said. “You just have to make it as hard as possible for them.”

Student Daniel Huerfano said he recognized Cruz from an Instagram photo in which Cruz had posed with a gun in front of his face. He recalled that Cruz was shy when he attended the school and remembered seeing him walk around with his lunch bag.